Get a Taste of the Age of Conversation: From E to J

This is the second installment of a “review” of the just-released Age of Conversation e-book – actually, just a taste of what each author has written, to make the case why you should buy the book!

This post will show the entries for those authors with last names from E to J.

So what is the “value proposition” of the Age of Conversation book? Take a taste. Then go buy it!

Mark Earls
“WE” NOT “I” – THE HUMAN TRUTHS REVEALED BY THE AGE OF CONVERSATION – “What the new connectedness that technology has really done is reveal human nature more clearly, more fully, and more usefully. And in doing so, it challenges some of our most important assumptions about human nature and human behaviour, ideas that have dominated for two centuries at least.”

Gia Facchini
ABOUT CONVERSATION – “Without a conversation there is no engagement, no sharing of information, no transfer of knowledge. Without a conversation, we cannot learn to listen, to give words their own meaning and not the one
we would like them to have. Without conversation the essence of blogging would be lost as well as the newest trend in customer-centric marketing.”

Anna Farmery
HOW TO TURN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT INTO A HAPPY MARRIAGE – “To win in your market, you need to win the hearts and minds of the talent in your company — as it is the talent that differentiates you from your competitors.”

Julie Fleischer
VISUALIZING THE THREADS – “In contrast, two or more speakers engage in conversation — their threads interweave, they jut, they pause, they wrap around each other. If you pull one thread from the fabric, it all unravels. A good conversation is one in which neither thread dominates, neither thread tells the whole story; together, they create something entirely new. Each thread, each participant, is influenced by the other.”

Cedric Georgi
THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF WORD OF MOUTH – “International WOM will, in fact, improve conversations all around the world. As a consequence, almost everything will be known on earth and companies or governments will have to tell the truth and start real conversations with people!”

Phil Gerbyshak
CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION: THE IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOW-UP – “One of the most overlooked pieces of communication is also one of the simplest, and most impactful, ones to do. It’s the timely follow-up after someone meets with you, be it for a formal interview, a question and answer session, a cup of coffee and polite conversation, or even an e-mail where you’re asking for assistance.”

Bob Glaza
GIVE AND GROW – “Every community has an intrinsic need to grow. The worthy community will always seek and embrace a diversity of voices. Begin by using your unique voice at the edge of the community.”

Mark Goren
BEING A GIVE + TAKE MARKETER – Act One: Joining In
“Stop talking.
No one wants to listen to just you.
Start a conversation.
Throw out a topic. Move out of the way.
And just see where it goes. ”

Kristin Gorski
W.R.I.T.E – “Blogging and its immediate interactivity helps writers develop tools to blast through the dams that slow a flood of words to a trickle. When readers encourage, ignore, laugh, disagree, and link to us, blocks to expression cannot stand up to it.”

Janet Green
THE RESTORATIVE QUALITIES OF CONVERSATION – “Conversation also has the power to restore critical aspects of our humanity which over time have eroded from our daily lives: civility, credibility and integrity.”

Lewis Green
CONVERSATION THAT CONNECTS YOU TO ME – “Customers have a voice and they want us listen to their voices. If we want to gain their trust and win over their business, why wouldn’t we give them what they want? Isn’t that the basis of business — we understand what our customers want or need, and we give it to them. In exchange, they give us their business.”

Ann Handley
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE YOU TALKING TO? – “The thing is … in this Age of Conversation, one exchange has the potential to influence many. Anyone can be a maven. Or a connector. Social media like blogs and wikis help one person to reach and influence many.”

Gavin Heaton
THE PROMISCUOUS IDEA – “In moments, a concept can be explained, shared and tracked on a single blog — on the other side of the world, this idea can be modified, expanded upon and discussed. Seconds pass and more voices are heard — a version transmutes into new forms … being picked up as a podcast, a video, an older-style presentation deck. From a single creative impulse, a legion of additions, modifications and transmutations can spread in minutes, hours, days and weeks.”

Dr. Graham Hill
VALUING CONVERSATIONS – “There are early indications that we are already entering the Customer Co-creation age. Co-creation is based upon involving customers inside the company: in customer-driven innovation, in social marketing and even in customer self-service. Co-creation not only enables deep conversations between customers and companies, it also gives customers the tools to converse with each other.”

Kris Hoet
YOU GET A LONG WAY WITH COMMON SENSE – “There’s really nothing different about the conversations we’re having on the web using all this social media compared with conversations you have in a bar, in your office, at a conference or wherever. The speed in which technology changes might frighten a lot of people, but the conversation is the
same.”

Uwe Hook
THE NEW WORLD OF INVITATIONAL MARKETING – “Clearly, marketers have always tried to attract, allure, entice, or tempt people. But instead of being a polite supplement to everyday life, they tried the Neanderthal approach — hit them over the head, hold them hostage in exchange for entertainment and grunt at them louder if they react in
unexpected ways.”

Sean Howard
DISCONNECTION FROM COMMUNITY IN OUR REAL WORLD LIVES – Hmmm…you just have to see the (full-page) graphic in the book, I guess!

Robert Hruzek
THE AGE OF CONVERSATION MAKES ME THINK OF…BRIDGES – “Conversation, when employed wisely, can easily become an effective tool for bridging geographical, political, and ideological barriers. I talk to you; you talk to me — but watch out! You’re in a construction zone; a bridge is being built!”

Richard Huntington
OPINION IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF CONVERSATION – “After all, what makes you want to join a conversation, whether online or face-to-face? I’ll bet it is because you couldn’t agree more with what someone says. Or because you couldn’t agree less with what someone says. Or simply that the point of view being put forward is in some way fresh and unfamiliar to you. That’s why any of us comment on blogs. And for this to happen, a person, blog or brand needs to deliver a point of view the conversation can coalesce around. In other words, to advance an opinion.”

Tim Jackson
ARE YOU IN THE CONVERSATION? – “Here’s the core, the kernel, the meat of the matter; you can bet your company’s entire marketing budget, that if you are not online in some form or another, where your customers (or potential ones) are spending more and more of their time, somebody else is and they are taking them away from you.”

Dustin Jacobsen
ENGAGING CONSUMERS IN THE MOBILE INFORMATION AGE – “Mobile is one of the most personal forms of communication we have today, with most people carrying their mobile phone around the clock and well within reach 24/7.”

AJ James
THE ART OF NON-CONVERSATION – yep, once again, you’ll have to buy the book to see the (full-page) graphic!

Stanley Johnson
DON’T TALK. LISTEN. – “Listen to people. Real people. But not the sort of people who only tell you what you want to hear. Of course you may not always like what you hear, but that’s no reason not to listen. In fact that’s probably one of the best reasons to listen.

Spike Jones
SHUT UP – “Seriously. Shut your yap. You just might learn something if you do. In fact, I guarantee you will.”

Amy Jussel
MOMMY, WHY IS THAT LADY LICKING A BEER BOTTLE? – “The age of conversation … Age 5? 10? Trust me, it takes on a whole new meaning when you have wee ones trying to make sense of the media and marketing messages flying in their little faces with increasing coarseness, commercialism and crass innuendo 24/7 at rapid-fire speed.”